


A New Life

by WotanAnubis



Category: Stellaris (Video Game)
Genre: Assimilation, Driven Assimilator, Gen, Gestalt Consciousness, Nudity, cyborg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:35:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23532430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WotanAnubis/pseuds/WotanAnubis
Summary: In which an unassuming colonist has the chance to begin again in a very different kind of life.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 12





	A New Life

**Author's Note:**

> _Stellaris_ is a bit fuzzy on how Gestalt Consciousnesses actually work. A single mind with many bodies? Many minds in unison? A single mind controlling other, lesser minds? All of these might be true, in some form or another.
> 
> This one, though, probably isn't.

Tiberia awoke in a sterile room she had never seen before, but knew immediately. She didn't know how she got here, but it was not difficult to guess. The last memory she had before waking up here was one of terror. She'd been running, tears in her eyes, screaming her lungs out, desperate to get away even though there was nowhere to run. Behind her, blank-faced metal soldiers approached steadily. Above her, alien ships blotted out the sun.

"How are you feeling?"

Tiberia turned her head to look at the one who'd spoken. She... it was probably a she... was a member of one of the most feared and despised species in all the galaxy. She was small and delicate and looked vaguely fox-like, with soft fur and a cute face.

That fox-like face had struck terror into Tiberia all her life. Now she looked at it and felt nothing.

"Don't you know?" Tiberia asked.

The vulpes typed something onto her pad. "I can request the data directly from your implants, but that would not be entirely wise at this juncture."

"Why not?"

"You've only just been integrated into the Unity, and you are among the first terrans to be so. Going too fast right now could have unfortunate consequences. Verbal communication is much more familiar to you, and so the safer option at the moment. So, how are you feeling?"

"I feel nothing," said Tiberia.

The vulpes made a note of it. "Possibly a side-effect of the drugs used during your operation. It has been known to happen with other humanoid species. Do you feel your implants?"

"No."

"Good," said the vulpes. "There do not appear to be any major issues. Now then, you will not have any duties until Harmony is assured your integration is complete. You will be observed constantly, but I do not think that will bother you."

"Aren't you... we... isn't everyone in the Unity observed constantly?"

"Yes and no," the vulpes replied calmly. "Our implants constantly stream data to Harmony, of course, but Harmony cannot consciously monitor and direct each and every part of the Unity all the time."

"Then why is this-" Tiberia stopped and started again. "Then why am I going to be observed constantly?"

"As I said, you are among the first terrans to be integrated into the Unity. Until now, Harmony only had data on your species through outside observation. This is the first opportunity for Harmony to gather more immediate date on terrans through you and the other humans the Unity acquired when we took Nova Parthia. That data, of course, will aid with the integration of the rest of the terran population."

"I understand, but it won't work," said Tiberia. "I am no longer human."

She said it quite simply. A statement of fact. She felt like it shouldn't have been. That she should have been anxious or frightened to say it. That she should have felt even the least bit of hesitation to admit that she wasn't human any more.

She didn't. Maybe this, too, was a side-effect of the drugs the vulpes had mentioned. But she didn't think so.

"You are part of the Unity," the vulpes said. "But you are still a biological being, and you will react and behave according to that biology. Properly moderated by Harmony, of course."

"I see," said Tiberia.

The vulpes' eyes became unfocused for a moment. Her fuzzy ears twitched.

"We're done here," the vulpes said. "You are to leave for the terran quarters so the room can be used for the next subject to be integrated."

Tiberia rose from the bed. "I suppose in future, I will receive those instructions directly into my brain."

"You suppose correctly," said the vulpes.

Tiberia left the room. She had never left Terran space before. Had certainly never set foot on a Unity station before. But that didn't matter. She knew exactly where she needed to go anyway.

* * * * *

Tiberia hadn't known what to expect from a Unity station. Robots and vulpini, obviously. And the immaculate hallways were indeed crowded with both. But there was also klaggan, and orcs, and gerthians, and silidar, and just about every other species that had been integrated into the Unity.

Tiberia found herself standing still and watching the crowd. She became aware of a strange double feeling. All these different species, all these different aliens. This one species, this one alien. The many-limbed gerthian skittering along was obviously completely different from the hulking orc walking past. The many-limbed gerthian was exactly the same as the hulking orc.

She was human, and entirely different from this crowd. She was human, and an indistinguishable part of this crowd.

The thoughts made her dizzy. She stumbled a few paces and leaned against a gleaming wall for fear of falling. She was human. She was Unity. She was _one_ human. She was many. She was one of many. She was Tiberia. She was Harmony and Tiberia was only the designation of this one body.

Then, from one moment to the next, her dizziness was gone. Her confusion was gone. Tiberia righted herself. Her implants had no doubt noticed the chaos in her brain and had intervened to stabilize her mood.

She would have to deal with this. Tiberia was now part of the Unity, and the Unity were many who were one, overseen by Harmony.

But she would not have to deal with this now, within minutes of waking up on the operating table. There would be time later.

* * * * *

Tiberia reached the station's new terran quarters without further incident. The crowds in the hallways had been as diverse as ever, but she had been unable to pay them any real attention. They had been... shapes to be avoided.

The terran quarters turned about the quite large. Identical beds were spaced along the walls. There were chairs and tables suitable for humans. There was food.

And there were other humans. About a dozen, or so. Some at the tables to eat, some were lying on separate beds. Quite a few of them had squeezed onto a single bed. Tiberia recognised three of them from the colony. Doubtless the others had been part of- had been colonists on Nova Parthia as well. Some were men, some were women. All were naked.

She was naked, too.

She hadn't realised that, until now. Probably the surgeons had needed full access to her body when they'd implanted her cybernetics into her and had seen no reason to clothe her when they were done.

She should've noticed, especially in the hallways full of people. Hadn't. She hadn't had to perform any kind of labour that required protective gear, and the station's climate control meant she didn't have to protect herself from exposure.

She had no need of clothes. She had no practical need for clothes. Still, she should have felt ashamed. Or scared at being so exposed. She should have felt some desire for some modesty.

She felt nothing. She was not bothered by her nakedness. She was not bothered by their nakedness.

One of the group of people all lying on the same bed looked at her. She was a woman Tiberia didn't recognise.

"Hungry?" the woman asked.

"No," Tiberia replied.

"Tired?"

"No."

"Come here, then," the woman said.

Tiberia walked over to the bed. Five people occupied a space intended for only one. Bodies and limbs entwined into a single, many-personed hug. Three women, two men. That distinction might have been important to Tiberia, once upon a time. A time that had, most likely, been yesterday. Now they were people. Segments of the Unity.

Tiberia silently crawled onto the bed. A space opened up for her between the tangle of bodies and she slid into it easily. Warmth enveloped her. She was surrounded by rigid lines and gentle curves. Soft skin and hard muscle caressed her naked body.

As she lay there between four people she had never met before and Publia the dentist's assistant, Tiberia found a smile playing across her lips. She had never once in a her life been in a single bed with this many people before, yet she found in it a certain basic, animal sense of... community. Or something like community.

She was not alone. She had known she was not alone the moment she had woken up as part of the Unity. But now she felt it as well, in some deep part of herself the machine could not quite reach.

As Tiberia lay there between these strangers - and Publia - it slowly became clear to her that they were not strangers. These six bodies belonged to all of them. She was all of them, and they were all her. She was this body known as Tiberia, but she was also this man lying next to her, and he was also the woman with the strange scar across her cheek, and she was also two months away from becoming a proper dentist.

A new sensation stole over Tiberia. There was no describing it, because it had never happened to any human before. It happened now only because they were being integrated into the Unity. As Tiberia touched the bodies of these others who were also herself, so too did her implant touch their implants. She could not hear or see their thoughts. But she was aware of their thoughts in her mind, and her mind in their thoughts.

It was only the beginning. Practice for the real thing. If her mind had been opened the whole of the Unity, all those billions and billions of beings both organic and mechanical, she would have been utterly overwhelmed. But this, these six people, she could handle that. She could deal with being all of them, and all of them being her.

But already Tiberia felt a touch of impatience. A touch of impatience that Harmony apparently didn't object to, since it allowed her to feel the emotion without intervention.

She was six, but she wanted to be billions. She was human, but she wanted to be alien. She was organic, but she wanted to be synthetic.

It would have to wait. At least until her brain had fully adjusted to her new existence.

Until then, Tiberia would have to content herself with these six bodies.

The door slid open, and another newly integrated human part of the Unity stepped into the room.

_Or perhaps seven._


End file.
